Monday, July 7, 2008
NBC hires Dan Patrick
Looks like Dan Patrick has got himself a new job. From the New York Times:
Dan Patrick, who left ESPN last year to create his own syndicated radio program and write a column for Sports Illustrated, will join NBC Sports where he will be reunited with Keith Olbermann to call the NFL highlights on “Football Night in America.” NBC is scheduled to make the announcement at 2 p.m. Eastern.
NBC is looking to recreate the chemistry and quirky humor that Patrick and Olbermann demonstrated when they were co-anchors on ESPN’s “SportsCenter,” which they dubbed “The Big Show.” Olbermann joined “Football Night” last year, but is best known now as the host of MSNBC’s nightly “Countdown” program.
Recreate the chemistry? I’d argue that any chemistry the two co-hosts had was before people realized Olbermann could be such a narcissistic, misogynistic douche bag. He didn’t have any of his politically polarizing “Special Comments” back when he was on ESPN. I’m not sure adding Patrick to the mix is going to help. Olbermann is clearly not the same person he was in during this stint at ESPN.
Not that I really understand the attraction of NFL football on Sunday night. I don’t get to watch NFL football on Sunday night. I live on the east coast and I work for a living. I can’t stay up till midnight on a Sunday night to watch football.
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“Olbermann is clearly not the same person he was in during this stint at ESPN.”
Maybe that’s because now, unlike when he was on ESPN, he has a job that allows him to say things that actually matter, to be heard by people who actually give a crap.
Once an on-air personality becomes a divisive political hack, I’m not sure it’s possible for them to once again make the jump back to something politically neutral as sports. ESPN tried it a few years ago with Rush Limbaugh. It didn’t work out too well.
It seems NBC realizes that football viewers aren’t responding to Olbermann the way they did when he worked for ESPN. If they think they can rehabilitate Olbermann by injecting Dan Patrick into the mix, I think they are mistaken.